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Shapiro says Prop 1 furthers ‘semi-collectivist’ ideals

By Neal McNamara | April 9, 2014

Host Ben Shapiro on Tuesday talked to a representative for the pro-Proposition 1 campaign, which would raise the sales tax in King County by ½ a cent and increase car tabs fees by $40 to fund King County Metro bus service and fix roads.

John Scholes asserted that the $1 billion raised over 10 years by Prop 1 would boost the economy by saving bus routes; Prop 1 would alleviate traffic by allowing more people to take the bus instead of drive; and generate money to send to local governments for fixing roads and bridges.

But Shapiro asserted that the remaining 60 percent marked for King County Metro would go into a “slush fund,” and said that it might be better to buy cars for 100,000 individuals with the $1 billion. Shapiro said that Prop 1 would subsidize road diets – where road sizes are shrunk and fitted with bike lanes – and that most of the money marked for Metro would go to paying union employees.

If we approve Prop 1, “What we’re going to get in return are the same buses and the same crappy roads, and a lot of money spent to make those roads crappier by adding bike lanes, and a vast majority of that money going into a slush fund,” Shapiro said. “So if that sounds like a party to you, by all means vote yes on Prop 1.

“This is part of this whole semi-collectivist scheme to rid us of our personal independence. Cars are wonderful tools, gang, and symbols of American wealth. Why in the world are we going to pay more for more traffic?”

Shapiro said that every time someone rides a King County Metro bus, local governments have to subsidize that ride to the tune of $4.03. He asked Scholes how Prop 1 – the latest in a string of tax increases Metro has asked for – would solve Metro’s $100 million debt, and why it’s choosing to install a regressive tax that can disproportionately affect poor people.

“The increase is actually pretty modest,” Scholes said. “The most regressive thing we can do is cut a ton of bus service for working people, to goof up the commute for thousands of other people on the roads driving to get to work. That’s the most regressive thing we can do.”

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